Librivox recording of Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber.
Read by Lee Ann Howlett.

Dawn O’Hara, the Girl Who Laughed was Edna Ferber’s first novel. Dawn, a newspaperwoman working in New York, finds herself back home in Michigan on doctor’s orders. Years of living in boarding-houses and working to pay for the care of her brilliant but mentally ill husband, Peter Orme, have taken their toll. At twenty-eight, Dawn feels like an old woman with no future. But, the loving care of her sister Norah and her family along with the attentions of the handsome German doctor, Ernst Von Gerhard, slowly bring Dawn back to life. With Dr. Von Gerhard’s help, she obtains a newspaper job in Milwaukee and begins a year of new adventures among new people. However, the specter of her husband living in a mental hospital is always present and Dawn fears she may never be free to love again. (Summary by Lee Ann Howlett)

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M4B audiobook of Complete Book


This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio

Artist/Composer: Edna Ferber
Date: 2008-05-08
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: librivox; audiobooks; fiction

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: ListeninginChicago - - April 16, 2011
Subject: Lovely romance
This was a lovely romance and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Lee Ann did an excellent job on this solo recording and was a pleasure to listen to. Quite a bit of the book takes place among Milwaukee's German residents, so there are a number of German phrases sprinkled in. The only downside was that Lee Ann's American accent was quite heavy and this sometimes made the German difficult to understand. If you don't know German, this takes nothing away from the story, as these phrases are not necessary to the plot.

Reviewer: alamedared - - July 2, 2010
Subject: Bravo Lee Ann!
Great job, Lee Ann. I love your tone when you read.

Reviewer: RM_115 - - July 2, 2010
Subject: An enjoyable story.
Cleverly written and very well narrated, this tale has many twists and turns that lead to an open ending. It has some flat spots but what does not? Listening to this story is time well spent.

Reviewer: benefitsingers - - March 5, 2009
Subject: Great Reading and interesting story
For the quality of the reader I would give 5 stars. Lee Ann Howlett lends such a practical tone to the character that I truly believed she was Dawn. Excellent job Lee Ann! As for the story it had one of those endings that sort of left me thinking huh? There were times I wanted to just kick Dawn for being so stubborn. It is a good story and I think anyone would enjoy it.